here's my theory.....get rid of the europeans...they're only in it for the money.
the sedins make as much in 2 periods of regular season play as they would winning a Stanley Cup...
so why beat the crap out of yourself for 6 to 8 weeks for the same dough...
the people in sweden don't give a fat rats ass about the Stanley Cup ( they play great in the Olympics...don't they?)
If canadian teams want to win the Stanley Cup get Canadian (at least North American ) players .........DUH.........
Until then, welcome to mediocraty..............

pepperfall wrote:
here's my theory.....get rid of the europeans...they're only in it for the money.
...
the people in sweden don't give a fat rats ass about the Stanley Cup ( they play great in the Olympics...don't they?)

Tell that to the wings.

I'm sure Lundqvist is pissed that they beat Ottawa, but Alfreddson is the happiest guy on the planet.

Renne is probably jumping for joy that his team is down 2-0 (he's only shutting out PHO as I type because he was promised a bonus if he wins tonight)

We certainly have been mediocre and our Canadians have been stellar! I could not believe when that German idiot Hamhuis gave the puck away in OT. Clearly just wanted to get home to watch the Champions League. The dumb Jew couldn't make the save either. And what's with that Russian sissy Oreskovich? No more greezy Italians either. Go back to Paris Alexandre, you god damned surrender monkey.

pepperfall wrote:here's my theory.....get rid of the europeans...they're only in it for the money.
the sedins make as much in 2 periods of regular season play as they would winning a Stanley Cup...
so why beat the crap out of yourself for 6 to 8 weeks for the same dough...
the people in sweden don't give a fat rats ass about the Stanley Cup ( they play great in the Olympics...don't they?)
If canadian teams want to win the Stanley Cup get Canadian (at least North American ) players .........DUH.........
Until then, welcome to mediocraty..............

Yet oddly, in the last ten years the Conn Smythe trophy has been awarded to Europeans three times (Lidström, Malkin, Zetterberg), ie 30% of the time, despite them making up less than 25% of the players in the league.

Not only do they not care about winning the Cup, they also fool all the experts into believeing that they do.

Good thing that you are on to them.

But don't worry, your wish is being fulfilled as we speak.

In 2003/04, the last season before the lockout, there were 275 European skaters in the NHL, a whooping 30% of the player total. This season the number had fallen to a 195, or just under 22%, that means the number of Europeans playing in the NHL has fallen by nearly a third. The only "major" European hockey nation that is bucking the trend is Sweden. The season before the lockout there were 49 Swedish skaters in the NHL, today there are 59. Other than that, it's all downhill:

The number of Russians has fallen from 66 in 00/01 to 22 in 11/12. Two thirds are gone.
The number of Czechs has fallen from 71 in 01/02 to just 40 this season. More than 40% gone.
There were 36 Slovaks in the league in 03/04, now there are 10. More than 70% gone.
The Finns peaked in 01/02 with 36 skaters and are now down to 21. More than 40% gone.

It's even more drastic when you look at rookies. In 00/01 there were 60 NHL rookies coming from the Big Five European nations (RUS, CZH, SWE, FIN, SLK), in 11/12 there were 30. The number has been halved.
If you exclude Sweden, that has gone from 6 to 17 in that period, the other four have dropped from 54 to 13, or by 75%.
That's a whole lot of talent that the NHL misses out on.

In 00/01 there were 14 Slovak rookies taking their first strides on NHL ice. This year there was only one; a guy named Milan Kytnar, who played one (1) game for Edmonton...

The truth is simply that the NHL is no longer the league of choice for many East European players who can earn as much with less of a commute and without having to learn English in the KHL.

The number of Canadians has remained fairly stable. Roughly 54%.
481skaters in 00/01 and 480 this season, with a high of 494 (55%) in 03/04 and a low of 444 (52%) in 06/07.
Instead it's the Yanks that pick up the slack. They have increased from 133 (15%) in 00/01 to 219 (almost 25%) this season.

I don't know. Imho the average Russian, Czech, Finn or Swede is at least as passionate about hockey as the average Joe in the US of A. Shrug. But I guess you, Tim Thomas and Don Cherry know better.

Last edited by Per on Thu May 03, 2012 8:23 am, edited 6 times in total.

A comment like this was bound to surface after the whole AK-46/Radulov incident.

Too much of a generalization to fit all Euros in there. Do Russian players really give a shit about the Stanley Cup? Most probably don't (no extra money in it), but some do. Can you say the same about other Euros? Ask guys like Chara, Selanne, Alfredsson, etc.

Per pretty much hits the nail on the head, but I see this as more of a pendulum swing than something you can hang your hat on to.

I see fewer NHL players from european countries as a market correction following the 90s when, frankly, Canadian hockey development programs failed. NHL GMs looking for skill back then had to look to Euro countries, while (with some exceptions) Canadians took up mucker and 'energy' roles on teams. Now with the resurgence of the Canadian development program you're seeing less reliance on european countries for skilled players.

I've read elsewhere that neither the Czech nor Slovak leagues have recovered since the two countries split. Call the KHL what you will, but when you're living in a Russian or eastern european society that looks like a cross between Orwell's 1984 and a scene from Dickens, money means a helluva lot more than some foreign championship. Why pay your dues making chump change, when you can get insta-millions from AK Bars Kazan?

Don't blame them for staying home. Also don't blame NHL GMs for steering clear of Russians either. But still they come here and play. Why????